State of Telecom Industry in Pakistan

It was a total surprise for me when I came to know that as per PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) Act (laws and regulations) voice traffic over bandwidth of ISP’s and DSL operators is illegal. This Public Information Bulletin of PTA confirms it. The information bulletin also terms such voice traffic as “grey traffic”, traffic which is illegal.

So, in the recent meeting on the issue of Grey Traffic held at PTA Headquarters, PTA has directed all Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to ensure that their networks are not used for illegal call/voice termination and such cases of grey telephony are brought into the notice of PTA immediately.

Does this mean NO Voice Chat on Broadband ? No Skype?. I think PTA should reconsider on this move and make necessary amendments in its Act to facilitate services for home users.

At one end the demand of mobile broadband is increasing and so is the need of 3G and B3G (Beyond 3G), where as at the other end operators as well as consumers have shown reluctance to go 3G. Operators resist in the deployment of 3G as they have invested heavily in existing air-interface infrastructure, while for consumers the cost of using 3G services is high.

As we had discussed earlier in the Evolution towards HSDPA, the migration strategy along the road to the 3G and beyond should be “soft” network evolution that does not render existing installations superfluous. The solutions to this comes as NSN unveils plans for Flexi Multiradio base stations.

As reported in a press release,

Nokia Siemens Networks has today made the evolution path from 2G and 3G to LTE faster, greener and more cost-effective than ever with the launch of Flexi Multiradio Base Station. Building on the company’s market leading Flexi Base Station platform, the new Multiradio Flexi expands its supported technologies to cover GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE – all running concurrently in a single unit.

Flexi Multiradio Base Station meets the needs of new and existing 2G and 3G operators who can use their existing infrastructure to deploy new network-wide technologies via simple software upgrade to 3G or LTE. The flexibility of a true multiradio base station removes the risk from balancing investments made in 2G, 3G and LTE, providing operators with future-proof options. The new Multiradio Flexi is also backward compatible with current Flexi Base Station, enabling capacity upgrades to existing Base Station sites.The product also fits CDMA operators who intend to migrate to WCDMA/HSPA or LTE.

For operators coping with cost challenges, running multiple radio technologies in a single Base Station means reduced OPEX from fewer site visits, simplified logistics, reduced maintenance and a smaller requirement for trained staff. The possibility to reuse GSM sites for WCDMA and HSPA also delivers savings from reduced rental costs and maximized reuse of existing infrastructure.

“Flexi Multiradio Base Station makes network evolution faster, greener and more cost-efficient than ever, and this launch makes Nokia Siemens Networks the only vendor which enables future technology evolution steps exactly with the same hardware without radio technology specific boards. Thanks to the industry’s highest degree of integration, Flexi Multiradio Base Station is able to provide three technologies in one compact 3 sector Base Station of less than 75 liters”, said Marc Rouanne, head of the company’s Radio Access business.

Superior energy efficiency – a key feature of Flexi Base Stations – is further improved in Flexi Multiradio. The new Base Station has the lowest energy consumption in the market. An average 3 sector Base Station site running simultaneously GSM/EDGE and WCDMA/HSPA consumes as little as 790W, whilst pushing an impressive 60W output per sector for maximum capacity and coverage. The small and lightweight product is also rugged enough for outdoor use without shelters or air conditioning, further minimising their environmental impact.

“We are very pleased to see Nokia Siemens Networks take concrete steps towards fulfilment of the targets agreed in the context of WWF’s Climate Savers programme” said Jean-Paul Jeanrenaud, Director of Corporate Relations at WWF International. “This is a good example of how technological innovation can contribute to improved energy efficiency and profitability, while reducing a company’s ecological footprint. The fight against climate change requires all the ingenuity and commitment that the corporate sector has to offer”.

Flexi Multiradio Base Station features built-in IP/Ethernet connectivity for a unified transport network for the Single RAN. Operators can also benefit from using the common NetAct network management system for planning, optimising and operating the Single RAN. For example, NetAct Optimizer enables easy and high quality refarming of WCDMA or LTE in current GSM 900 MHz frequency band.

Deployments of this new Flexi Multiradio Base Station will start from the beginning of 2010 onwards.

PTCL has played a significant role to increase the broadband penetration in the country. According to the press release, the country’s largest converged services provider shows highest subscriber growth of 48% in the last quarter.

PTCL Broadband, country’s largest and fastest growing Broadband service showed a 48% growth in the last quarter of Oct – Dec 2008, bettering all its previous growth rates. Within one and a half years of its Broadband launch, PTCL has acquired over 100,000 Broadband customers in over 100 cities and towns across Pakistan, leading the proliferation and awareness of Broadband services across Pakistan.

The year 2008 was also very significant for PTCL Broadband in that it achieved two unique distinctions of hitting ‘a hundred’ during the last quarter; In October 2008, PTCL became the first ever company in Pakistan to spread its Broadband coverage to over 100 cities and then two months later it also became the first company ever again in Pakistan to acquire over 100,000 Broadband customers! It is significant to note that before PTCL’s entry into the Broadband market in 2007, Broadband was primarily only available in the 3 major cities of the country. With its entry in this market segment, PTCL opened up a broadband culture in Pakistan,where till a couple of years back there was very little awareness in the Pakistani market about broadband & high speed internet services.

Since its Broadband launch in May 2007, PTCL made the broadband technology affordable by lowering the barriers to entry, by geographically bringing the service within the reach of a common user across Pakistan and by continuous improvement in the customer service provisioning and complain management for the service. In just over 1.5 years this quadrupled the subscriber base that had taken 5 years to collectively accumulate by all the other service providers. PTCL now has its broadband services in over 120 major cities and towns across Pakistan i.e. Karachi, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Hala, Sukkur, Jacobabad, Khairpur, Larkana, Multan, Bhaipheru, Okara, Pakpattan, Sahiwal, Faisalabad, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Abbottabad, Attock, GujarKhan, Jehlum, Peshawar, Quetta alongside other small towns and cities. Expansion of PTCL broadband network will continue, providing more of its landline subscribers an opportunity to experience the latest in broadband and related technologies.

Special packages for the student segment along with services such as free dial up service for its Broadband customers and FREE access to movies, music, classical Pakistani dramas and cricket matches, educational and religious content for its Broadband customers are available, branded under ‘PTCL BUZZ’, this complete web infotainment content portal is made exclusive only to PTCL Broadband subscribers. In addition to these value additions, PTCL now also offers a free personalized e-mail account exclusively to its broadband users.

In addition to the above using its Broadband network, PTCL on 14th August 2008, entered the media sector by launching an interactive television service for the first time in Pakistan. Branded under ‘PTCL Smart Line’, the service includes Interactive Television, Broadband and voice Telephony all at the same time on PTCL’s telephone line. The most revolutionary section of this offering is the ability to rewind and pause live TV channels, the ability to block / unblock any TV channel for parental lock and the ability to search through video on demand content. Currently PTCL Smart TV offers its viewers over hundred live channels and a growing over 300 Movie titles ‘on Demand’. Currently the service is available in the three metros Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and will be expanded into all the major cities during the year.

Editor’s Note: Please join me to welcome Arsalan Mir. Arsalan is an undergraduate student in final year Telecommunication Engineering at FAST-NUCES (Karachi). He is the Vice-Chairperson of IEEE student branch at NUCES. Arsalan can be reached at arsalan.tmir@yahoo.com.

WiMAX in Pakistan emerged commercially with the launch of Wateen in August 2007. Recently, Mobilink has come up with its WiMAX brand ‘Infinity” and now it looks like the competition will soon elevate with Wi-tribe and TeleCard entering the WiMAX service race in Pakistan.

Wi-tribe is a joint venture of Qatar Telecom (Qtel) and A.A. Turki Corporation for Trading and Contracting (ATCO) in partnership with Clearwire. Wi-tribe is already offering services in Jordan and in Pakistan it has emerged out of the acquisition of majority stake in Burraq Telecom that occurred more than a year ago. They plan to showcase the real world benefits of Wireless Broadband to Internet community in Pakistan.

We will be offering high-speed Internet that is simple, affordable, and a portable alternative to fixed broadband. The Motorola WiMAX solution frees customers from the fixed line services.
Mohammad Sadiq
CEO, wi-tribe Pakistan.

Motorola has signed a multi-year WiMAX contract with wi-tribe Pakistan limited. Motorola has commenced deploying wi-tribe’s WiMAX network in the 3.5GHz spectrum. Commercial launch is expected during 2009.

TeleCard, a fixed wireless operator renowned for its Go-CDMA service, will also roll-out WiMAX under their current brand Supernet which is already offering internet services.

Newest development at the TeleCard will further enhance the Company’s profitability and will be a significant contributor to stakeholder satisfaction on an ongoing basis.
Aamir Niazi

Vice Chairman, TeleCard

Augere,an European company focused on broadband delivery in emerging markets, has been selected by TeleCard as the principal contractor to design and build the network such as to position a great offering / value proposition for the growing and very quality sensitive internet user community in the country. The equipment deployment has commenced in initial phase and the company expects the offering of service commercially by next year.

References:

[i] http://witribe.pk

[ii] http://daily.pk

[iii] http://www.telegeography.com